Massachusetts

Markey wants smoking age raised to 21

Markey wants smoking age raised to 21

State House News Service

Sen. Edward Markey has joined his colleagues in filing legislation raising the smoking age to 21. Markey announced Wednesday that he's joining Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio to introduce the Tobacco to 21 Act banning the sale of tobacco products to anyone under the age of 21.

"The public health catastrophe caused by tobacco in the 20th century was premeditated and promulgated by a tobacco industry that intentionally misled the public about the risks of smoking. And when they needed new and more customers, they targeted children and teens," Markey said in a statement. "Raising the minimum age for tobacco sales to 21 will help protect the generations of the 21st century and prevent millions from suffering the terrible health consequences of tobacco-related disease, including death."

‘Play not the peacock’ — Washington’s Rules of Civility
NewBostonPost

‘Play not the peacock’ — Washington’s Rules of Civility

Mary McCleary

Written when he was just a teenager, George Washington's Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation contains 110 precepts that emphasize self-control and respect for others. It is a useful guide for young people, if only to show that basic rules of courtesy are as relevant today as they were centuries ago. While some of the quaint admonitions may cause a smirk, most of them produce a knowing nod. After all, who would dispute: "think before you speak"?

Washington wrote the instructions in a notebook sometime between the ages of 14 and 16. The original manuscript is owned by the Library of Congress. The source text was a 16th-century French Jesuit book of maxims. A tutor likely gave Washington an English translation by Francis Hawkins, which was first published in London around 1640. Historians such as Charles Moore and Richard Brookhiser believe the rules had a profound influence on the future leader, and guided his comportment throughout his life. Brookhiser also suggests that, "the rules address moral issues, but they address them indirectly. They seek to form the inner man (or boy) by shaping the outer."

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